Sydney Water Operational Audit 2011/2 - IPART - NSW Government

Executive Summary
Sydney Water’s compliance is illustrated in the following table.
Table 1
Sydney Water’s compliance in 2011/12, the second year of its
2010-2015 operating licence
Number of Compliance grade awarded
Licence Clause
auditable
requirements a Full High Adequate
Part 2 – Water Quality 10 10
Part 3 – Infrastructure Performance 1 1
Part 7 – Water Conservation 3 3
Total 14 14
a The 14 licence requirements audited this year were determined by IPART and advised to Sydney Water in
letter of 21 May 2012. Clause 2.1(c) of the licence is not required to be audited until 2014.
Source: IPART, letter of 21 May 2012 to Sydney Water re 2011/12 AUDIT SCOPES.
Source: GHD, Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal Operational Audit of Sydney Water Corporation,
November 2012.
Further, Sydney Water has fully addressed all of the auditor’s recommendations
from the previous 2010/11 audit.
IPART’s Recommendations
Since full compliance has been awarded, we agree with the auditor that there are
no audit recommendations to be made this year. 2
However, the auditor has identified 20 opportunities for improvement 3 where
Sydney Water could consider changing its processes and procedures to further
enhance its operations. The opportunities are discussed in detail in the auditor’s
report (see Appendix A).
We will request Sydney Water to consider the prudency and efficiency of
implementing such opportunities.
2 Where full compliance is awarded, our Audit Guidelines state that an auditor should not make
recommendations.
3 These are suggestions by the auditors that may further improve procedures and practices. The
utility can decide whether to implement such opportunities, based on their own assessment.
We expect the pricing implications of continued improvement and value for money to the
customer should be considered in determining whether to implement such opportunities.
2 IPART Sydney Water Corporation Operational Audit 2011/12